


Infamy

by Delphi



Category: Harry Potter - Rowling
Genre: Birthday, Drama, Established Relationship, Grief/Mourning, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2005-08-06
Updated: 2005-08-06
Packaged: 2017-10-05 20:46:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 352
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/45883
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Delphi/pseuds/Delphi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Severus celebrates Albus's birthday. Set after <i>Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince<i>.</i></i></p>
            </blockquote>





	Infamy

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Beth H (bethbethbeth)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/bethbethbeth/gifts).



Albus's birthday came two months to the day after his death, and Severus stole down to the Malfoys' wine cellar to mark the occasion. He wandered for nearly an hour up and down the narrow rows, maliciously uncorking half the bottles and putting them back unsealed when he'd had a sniff or a taste, with nothing but the disturbed dust to tell tales on him.

He finally settled on a bottle whose label was too old and crumbling to be read, and he sat in a dingy corner with a crystal glass pilfered from the dining room. He poured nearly to the rim, pulling a face at the smell. It was a thick red, too sweet—just the sort of drink that Albus had offered him a half-dozen times on this very date, and he had always refused.

All over the world, he thought, there were men and women doing this very thing. He could picture them in his mind's eye, all those whom Albus Dumbledore had taken into his confidence, those he'd shared his birthday with, those he'd taken to his bed. He wondered if they had all gotten what they wanted from the old man in the century and a half he'd had on earth; he suspected they had.

"Happy Birthday, Albus."

He raised the glass and took a sip, a 'thank you' poised on his lips—then he laughed. And laughed. And laughed until the wine sloshed over the side of the glass, spilling over his hand and dripping onto the floor in great blood drops; until his sides ached and his ribs creaked and the breath dried up like dust in his throat.

"Thank you," he finally managed to croak, and he tipped out a splash of wine into the packed dirt floor, utterly unsurprised when it disappeared.

For all the old man's talk of love and peace and redemption, for all those years of work and hope, it was his own birthday wishes that had won out in the end.

Albus Dumbledore had ensured that the name of Severus Snape was one that would never be forgotten.


End file.
